The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS) strongly opposes H.R. 185, the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2015, and urges you to oppose the bill. CSS includes diverse labor, environmental, consumer, public health, food safety, financial reform, faith and scientific integrity groups that represent millions of Americans across the country.

The current rulemaking process is already plagued with lengthy delays, undue influence by regulated industries, and convoluted court challenges. This bill would make each of these problems substantially worse. If passed, it would undermine our public protections and jeopardize public health by threatening the safeguards that ensure our access to clean air and water, safe workplaces, untainted food and drugs, and safe toys and consumer goods.

This bill must be defeated.

CSS also asks members to oppose Rep. McKinley’s amendment (Amdt. 10) because it is redundant, inflexible. Executive Order 12866 already requires that distributional impacts be taken into account where there may be impacts on particular groups, and recognizes that regulation may afford particular benefits for low-income communities. This amendment would also require that such an analysis be conducted for all rules, even where there are not likely to be such impacts.

Sincerely,

Katherine McFate
President and CEO, Center for Effective Government
Co-chair, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards

Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen
Co-chair, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards is an alliance of consumer, labor, scientific, research, good government, faith, community, health, environmental, and public interest groups, as well as concerned individuals, joined in the belief that our country’s system of regulatory safeguards provides a stable framework that secures our quality of life and paves the way for a sound economy that benefits us all.